From “Scapegoats: The Gospel Through the Eyes of Victims” by Jennifer Garcia Bashaw
As the process of scapegoating has evolved, it has also found different expressions. Scapegoating can be a one-on-one phenomenon, in which one person blames another for something he or she or someone else did. This form of scapegoating is often found among children, who blame a sibling or a friend for something they did to avoid the shame of disappointing their parents and the punishment that might follow a misdeed. Sometimes scapegoating takes a group[-on-one form, in which a group of people singles out and blames one person for a problem. One example is when the members of a sports team blame a player who made a mistake for the loss of a match, though other aspects of the play also affected the outcome. Another example is when someone alleges an assault but is then scapegoated by members of the community for “causing trouble” or “ruining” the life of the attacker.
Scapegoating also occurs in a one-on-group manner, when one person blames a group for a problem they did not cause: wars, deaths, financial losses of one kind or another, and other personal struggles. This form of scapegoating often finds a basis in racial, ethnic, religious, class, or anti-immigrant biases. Social psychologists argue that personal prejudice motivates many contemporary forms of scapegoating. Their “scapegoat theory of prejudice” maintains that people who experience frustration that cannot be expressed will often vent that frustration upon groups or individuals who are visible but powerless in society and often disliked.
Scapegoating can also be group-on-group. It occurs when one group blames another for problems that the groups collectively experience, which might be economic or political in nature. This form of scapegoating often occurs across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Jeffery Victor observes that “rapid change in a society results in widespread dislocation in people’s lives, and the resulting frustration, fear, and anger cause a great many people to seek scapegoats. These scapegoats are, in turn, ‘invented’ by moral crusaders to bear the blame for threats to a society’s past way of life and basic moral values.